Youth Services - Anne Izard Storytellers' Award 2002

This year we remember Phyllis Stephens – librarian, friend and storyteller supreme. 1962 – 2002

“No one in the world knew what truth was till someone had told a story.” Rudyard Kipling

Birch, Carol. The Whole Story Handbook: Using Imagery to Complete the Story Experience. August House. 2000.
With generous guidance and support from Birch, an internationally known and beloved storyteller, beginners and even expert tellers can expand and hone their art formu. In these pages we discover how to become passionately engaged in or own stories, not only with the full use of our senses, but with our attitudes, strengths and even weaknesses. Readers are also invited to explore the critical differences between storytelling, acting and media reporting. Although its main focus is storytelling, the wisdom in this brief book can well be applied to living creatively and with conviction.

Casanova, Mary. The Hunter. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000.
Searching for food to feed his starving village, a young hunter rescues a small snake. He is rewarded for his kindness by the snake's father, the Dragon King, with the gift of understanding the language of animals—a gift that must remain a secret. And so it does, until the hunter learns from the animals about an impending flood that threatens his village. With cadenced, elegant prose this beautifully told story from the Chinese culture celebrates self-sacrifice for the sake of others. Casanova's delicate touch honors the haunting, bittersweet quality of the story, which she first heard from a foreign exchange student who was staying with her.

Doyle, Malachy. Malachy Doyle's Tales From Old Ireland. Barefoot Books, 2000.
The authentic lilt of the Irish rings out clearly in these seven stories retold by Belfast-born Malachy Doyle. Using vivid language and native idiom, Doyle breathes energy and new life into such classics of Irish storytelling as The Children of Lir" and Oisin in Tir na nOg, as well as other lesser known tales. A "must have" collection for anyone interested in Irish folklore.

Hamilton, Virginia. The Girl Who Spun Gold Blue Sky Press, 2000.
The late Virginia Hamilton, noted author and storyteller, retells a West Indian variant of the Little Man (Rumpelstiltskin) story, with lilting speech patterns and dialect. The story’s action is told in cadence and rhythm that sing out. An intriguing departure from other Rumpelstiltskin tales you may have heard, this one has a maiden, Quashiba, who grows with the story and brings about a surprise ending.

Hicks, Ray. The Jack Tales. Callaway Editions, 2000.
Beloved storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival, the late Ray Hicks shares three rollicking aventures of Jack as only he could relate them, retelling the tales he heard from his grandfather on Beech Mountain in North Carolina. The bonus is to hear Ray’s inimitable voice and dialect on the accompanying CD, which offers the listener the unique experience of hearing the stories directly in the oral tradition. Ray was a treasure, and so is this opportunity to have his stories from him.

Holt, David and Bill Mooney, editors. More Ready to Tell Tales From Around the World. August House, 2000.
This multicultural anthology has much to offer. Its stories are proven audience pleasers that provide cultural windows and a deep understanding of our universal humanity. It also serves as a star-studded introduction to the renowned storytellers who have made these globe spanning tales part of their repertoires. The selections are divided according to type – such as comic, wisdom, fools, and tricksters, as well as according to theme - codes of conduct, benediction, wheel of fortune, family and community. Well known tellers themselves, Holt and Mooney encourage us to enliven and rejoice in storytelling by putting our stories in our own words and infusing them with our own unique personalities.

MacDonald, Margaret Read and Brian W. Sturm. The Storyteller’s Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif Index To Folklore Collections For Children. 1983-1999. Gale Group, 2001.
All storytellers, experienced or novice, will be enormously grateful that MacDonald and Sturm have updated the MacDonald’s original Storyteller’s Sourcebook. The new edition indexes 210 folktale collections and 790 picture books, all recently published. The sourcebook includes title, subject, tale motif, and geographic and ethnic indexes. Selections come from the Children’s Catalog 1983-1999 and from Booklist 1983-1999. This is an indispensable resource for all storytellers.

Martin, Francesca. Clever Tortoise. Candlewick Press. 2000
In this warm, orally infused retelling of an old story, it seems anything but old---fresh as new rain after drought time. Boastful Elephant starts the quarrel: “See how big I am? . . . I am stronger than all of you little animals!” And she starts trampling and spoiling the forest before Hippopotamus jumps right in, insisting she is the strongest. Clever Tortoise has other ideas, and soon the other small animals, working through “star time”, help Clever Tortoise with his oh-so-clever plan to teach those two braggarts a lesson. The conversation rings true, the descriptions delight. In short, the author’s mastery of African village storytelling will bring each storyteller and attendant listeners right to the fire.

Reneaux, J. J. HOW THE ANIMALS SAVED THE PEOPLE. Harper Collins, 2001
The late, acclaimed storyteller J.J. Reneaux serves up a tangy gumbo of tales told in the Deep South from the Cajun, Creole, Native American, African American and Scotch-Irish-German traditions. Not only varied in its ethnic mix, this collection also boasts a wide array of themes. There is the humorous porquoi tale of how Miz Gator’s once “beautiful, smooth-as-silk, pea green suit” came to be “scorched into a tough hide, greenish brown like the Mississippi”, thanks to the mischief of Br’er Rabbit. The title story about how such animals as snakes, bees and spiders absorbed poison from the vine into their bodies in order to save their fellow creatures - those two-legged human beings - conveys an environmental message that is both sensitive and thought provoking.

Schram, Peninnah and Howard Schwartz. Stories Within Stories. Jason Aaronson, 2000.
This deep and varied collection is drawn from talmudic and midrashic sources, medieval texts, the oral tradition of middle eastern countries, and particularly the Israel Folktale Archives. Beautifully told, these tales are at times contained within others like kernels, or linked together like precious jewels on a chain, or surrounded by a different story as by a frame. There is something here for everyone: humor and romance as well as moral and religious themes. The author's introduction provides great insight into the history and traditions that underlie the tales, while the stories themselves lead us to a greater understanding of the human heart.

Smith, Barbara McBride. Tell It Together: Foolproof Scripts for Story Theatre. ctl August House, 2001.
Here is a collection of 23 scripts taken from myths, folktales and fiction, all kid-tested and written by a full time school librarian and renowned storyteller who was recently named Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Elementary Teacher of the Year. Using narrators to move the stories forward, McBride Smith gives all characters a few lines that can easily be read aloud by children in a group ensemble that will be fun and non-threatening for even the most reluctant of young public speakers. She also provides suggestions for sound effects, simple costumes and staging that can be enjoyed by audiences of both children and adults. Not only is her choice of scripts remarkably varied – all the way from the hilarious “Bubba, the Cowboy Prince” to the haunting “Arachne and Athena” – she also encourages teachers and students alike to expand their creativity by writing scripts for stories of their own choosing.

Seeger, Pete and Paul DuBois Jacobs. Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book Harcourt, 2000.
"Traditions of story and song belong to everyone." Pete Seeger, one of America' s most beloved musicians, extends a delightful invitation to teachers, parents and grandparents to tell tales from their own lives. This book offers tempting samples – song based stories, music, past Seeger family events and accounts from American history, as well as tips on story personalization and effective lead-ins. Seeger’s message is clear: he wants all of us to start storytelling traditions of our own in order to share words, ideas and history with the children in our lives.

Tatar, Maria. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. W.W. Norton & Company, 2002.
This splendid collection includes Tatar’s new translations of twenty-six well-known fairy tales and numerous annotations with historical, psychological and literary details. It has biographies of well-known authors, collectors and illustrators and information about the influence of illustrations upon reader’s response to the stories. Storytellers will appreciate it as a resource for great stories to tell and for interesting supplemental, interpretive material.

This is the Sixth presentation of the award which was established in 1992 and is given every two years.

Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award Committee
Carol Katz, Chairperson – Irvington Public Library
Zahra M. Baird – Chappaqua Library
Juli Biro – Mount Kisco Public Library
Shawn Dunnom – Mount Vernon Public Library
Deirdre Goode – Mount Vernon Public Library
Judy Greenfield – Rye Storytellers’ Guild
Melissa Heckler – Lee S. Jackson Elementary School
Marianne McShane – Cisqua Rippowan School
Ellen Tannenbaum – Dover Plains Public Library
Neva Winter – Rye Storytellers’ Guild
Judith Rovenger, Youth Services Consultant – Westchester Library System